Health & Nutrition: What to feed your dog, and what NOT to feed your dog..

Raw DietRedTeddy Pups serves our dogs a wholesome, semi-raw dog food diet. If you are serious about following a raw food diet, check out these resources below. They'll give you far more information than RedTeddy can, and will also help you feel more confident in choosing a raw diet for your dog:

“Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats” by Kymythy Schultze

“Give Your Dog a Bone” by Dr Ian Billinghurst

One of the best (and free) resources for making your own dog food is by veterinarian Dr. Don Strombeck. We suggest everyone interested in feeding raw read:"Strombeck's Home-Prepared Diets For Dogs and Cat Safe, Balanced, Complete & Up-to-Date" available free at his website: http://www.dogcathomeprepareddiet.com/index.htm

Even if you are planning to feed your dog high quality commercially-made foods, it can be important to know the following:

Diet recommendations:Puppies need to have meals that are 60% meat/fish, 35% vegetables and no more than 5% grains/potatoes. Supplementation with omega oil or flax, and calcium or bone meal is advised. Check with your vet or other reliable source for exact formulations or supplement names and doses.

The meat/fish/poultry for raw diets may include regular cuts as well as organ meats/gizzards from the following sources: beef, lamb, venison, goat, buffalo, rabbit, turkey, chicken, ostrich, emu, duck but NO PORKdue to its high parasite risk.

Eggs can be served raw or cooked but do not feed separated egg whites raw.

Dairy – Do NOT feed cow milk! Cottage cheese, yogurt, goat milk, kefir are OK for puppies only. Dairy is not a natural food for adult dogs. My adult poodles love cheese of any kind, but I use it sparingly as it can cause constipation.

Do notfeed your puppy or dog: garlic, onions, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, or marijuana (yes, that means no pot - cooked or raw!)nor tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. Also, do not feed the same vegetables all the time – they must be rotated.

You may add to the diet raw pureed vegetables, or if need be cooked and/or canned if this is what is available. All vegetables must be a mushy consistency for the dog’ digestive system to derive nutrients from them. Some dogs like to snack on baby carrots which is fine. For meals,green leafy vegetables that would be present in the dogs natural prey, e.g. rabbits, are recommended (except spinach which should be strictly limited).

GrainsDogs do not need grains and the only acceptable grains in their diet should be: brown rice, barley, millet, pasta, rolled oats, polenta, or cooked whole wheat pasta. Cook and grind them up if you use them. If your pet has allergies, try eliminating all grains from their diet. They are just filler.

Potatoes –do not feed raw, and do not use potatoes with green skins or sprouted potatoes. Best to avoid white potatoes as they can contribute to inflammatory processes.

Fruit –No apricots, No peaches, No rhubarb, No Avocado. It is recommended that fruits be given as treats only.

No chewing gum or chocolate.*Do not allow your dog or puppy to get overweight - over eating is a primary cause of disorders such as hip displasia, even in puppies! Free range feeding is fine if you are also giving your pup plenty of free time on the range, exercising and playing, to burn the appropriate calories!

NEW PUPPY FAMILIES MAY TAKE HOME A TRANSITIONAL SAMPLE OF THE DOG FOOD THAT WE MAKE HERE FOR OUR DOGS, New owner families may bring home a few pounds of ourReally Good RedTeddy Raw Dog and Puppy Food*as a transitional food to be mixed with your choice of a balanced home made raw or high quality commercial dog food of your choice.

*Really Good RedTeddy Raw Dog and Puppy Food is not available for sale beyond what we give to new families. We do not make any claims as to the scientific balance of ingredients nor nutritional value of RGRDPF. However, we have used it daily since 2014.

At our house, our home made dog food contains​no corn, no soy, and nothing I cannot pronounce! Our recipe for what we put into RedTeddy Really Good Raw dog and puppy food changes depending on what is available. This is a snapshot of what we put into a batch: We start with about 15 pounds of beef, venison and/or antibiotic and hormone free, free running chicken per 6 pounds of mixed fruits and veggies including carrots, broccoli, kale & other greens; legumes (here we include peas and navy beans), beef liver and kidney, squash and seaweed calcium, fish oil, as well as NuVet powdered canine vitamin.

Vitamins

After trying many different vitamins we now include NuVet vitamins in our puppy packets. We require the ongoing use of this brand for our puppy health guarantee to be in effect.

One year of NuVet vitamins will cost $100 a year when you go on auto ship. That is less than .30 cents a day.(That is using half a tablet/scoop a day until they are grownup.)We like NuVet because they source locally and use human food grade ingredients and of course, they have done and continue to do the appropriate research to stay up with new science on canine health. Check out any other canine vitamins and please let us know what you find.

Its always better to avoid problems in the first place, rather than try to find a food or vitamin that will "fix" a dog who has skin problems, allergies, and so forth. We use NuVet here at RedTeddy, and so far, none of our dogs has developed any problems with skin or allergies.

NuVet vitamins are organic, locally sourced, scientifically based, and we use them on all our dogs.

TRUE COST OF USING A DAILY CANINE VITAMIN for a puppy under 10 pounds is if you sign up for auto ship twice a year, and you will pay about $100,less than .30 cents a day.As your dog gets larger, the price will increase to about .50 cents a day. Go ahead and use any vitamin you like, just make sure all the ingredients are sourced in the USA and are human food grade.

RedTeddy’s NuVet order code is 25590 Enter this code at the check out at www.nuvet.comwhen you order their products and we get a commission or call 800-474-7044.